Why? Because the waste is unwittingly colossal
NOT-SO-PEARLY FACT
It can take up to 500 years for a plastic toothbrush to biodegrade.
According to the BBC, our bathrooms are often the smallest room in our homes, but also the one that has the biggest environmental impact on our earth and oceans. This week, we’re focusing on our teeth, but more on the rest in our bathrooms to come! We’ll do one area every month so that come early New Year, we’ll all have angelic earth-friendly bathrooms.
Now to the staggering facts. In the UK, we brush our way through 260 million toothbrushes (1 billion in the USA) a YEAR . Every single one of those is sitting in landfill, or worse, in our oceans. Now let’s multiply by our average age. That’s not counting the floss and toothpaste tubes. It’s actually pretty horrifying when you think about it.
Damage to the planet not excepted, it’s easy to think a little toothbrush and a bit of floss doesn’t matter much in terms of climate change, but there’s two points to make here. First, climate change is a SYMPTOM of our consumption, not the cause. Fix the consumption, and we start to fix the rest. Second, if plastic were a country it would be the 5th largest emitter in the world. Basically throwaway plastic seriously sucks. The good news, is that every one of us can directly do something about it.
Ok, so how?
We need a simple strategy, a couple of replacements and a willingness to go the extra mile for our world.
Normal toothbrush - You want to look for bamboo or sustainable beechwood. While they still have plastic bristles the rest is compostable. Georganics, a pioneer in this space, have a zero-to-landfill system for their beechwood toothbrushes. Snap off the heads, send them back freepost and compost the handles. If you don’t have a composter they do go in the bin but degrade quickly by comparison. For bamboo this one gets the best reviews and is vegan (some use pig bristles!!).
Electric toothbrush - If you use a Philips Sonicare these are fully recyclable brush heads which you can return with the included compostable returns envelope for proper recycling. If you’ve got another brand it’s almost certain a quick google will lead you to one that fits.
Toothpaste - A bit trickier. This one comes in a jar, but we didn’t love it and the jury is out on cavity protection. Definitely worth trying though. Colgate have led the charge and launched a recyclable one. It’s made from HDPE, unlike regular tubes, which are made from a plastic aluminium mix and are impossible to recycle. No doubt there’ll be more coming on the market soon. The best option for now may be to use Terracycle to recycle your tubes (and existing plastic brushes). Take any brand (even though it says Colgate) and you’re guaranteed it will stay in a closed loop recycling. Have a box to keep your old toothbrushes in and once a year make a trip to your drop off point. If you can’t be bothered think landfill and damaged oceans and it may just sway you.
Floss - This one is plant-based instead of the normal crude oil plastic alternatives. A little different in texture but you quickly get used to it.
And there we are. Toothy angels us all!
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Will it cost me more money?
Yes.
We…
Aimee: I’ve tried three types of alternative toothpaste so far (inc. toothpaste tablets!), and not found one I like yet…I get floss from Georganics, and I take my electric toothbrush heads to a Terracycle drop off point near me. Progress, not perfection!
Sonia: I’m only just reaching the the point of making the shift. I have a couple of Philip Sonicare brush heads left to use, ditto a couple of packs of plastic floss. I’ve bought the eco replacements and ready to go on those when I run out on the rest. Will probably go down the Colgate Smile Terracycle route with toothpaste as I don’t trust the council recycling!
“Be a diamond and look after your pearls”
Photo: Alex